The Apprentice 2012: the boardroom brings out the bitch in women

The closest I've come to Lord Sugar is in a crowded press conference, so I don't know how I'd fare in the high-pressure environment of The Apprentice boardroom. Would my nerves get the better of me? Would I cry, or keep "shtum", as the Lord might say? And, I wonder, would I turn on the women I'd just spent 48 hours with trying to turn a profit?

Because, as last night's episode – the first of the eighth series – showed, that's exactly what some women do. Before Lord Sugar had revealed who would be spending the night enjoying art-themed cocktails and who would be slinking off to the Bridge Cafe, it was handbags at dawn. Despite earlier disagreements, the boys praised team leader Nick. The girls hedged their bets; ready to turn on Gabrielle as soon as they thought they had to. In the end, they eviscerated Bilyana, like hounds picking at a carcass, but not before they sniffed out mild-mannered Katie as easy prey.

Lord Sugar, of course, has been accused of sexist attitudes before. Whether or not that's a fair claim, the women on last night's episode pretty much made the chauvinist's case for him.

Three out of the seven Apprentice winners have been women; Michelle, Yasmina and Stella. Female candidates have made an impact; remember the opinionated Saira, the cool-as-a-cucumber Kate, the endlessly efficient Helen? Nevertheless, every series brings more bitching, bickering and sniping. Each year, I watch, hoping the women will rise above the backstabbing – as the men mostly do – and learn to work as a competitive but capable team. Yet without fail, they resort to the tactics of teenage girls – all snide remarks and passive-aggressive chatter. You only have to watch Nick Hewer's face to see how disappointingly childish the women can be, how fixated they are on proving points and how willingly they step on anyone else who deigns to do better than them.

This is reality TV, of course, and no one wants to watch people just getting along. Audiences want Desperate Housewives, not amicable coffee mornings, so the producers have to highlight the drama. But whereas the men tend to operate with a form of camaraderie, the women treat the contest as a zero-sum game, bloody and ruthless. And it makes them seem petty, not to mention weak and ill-suited to the pressures of professional life.

The female candidates for this year's prize have achievements to brag about; they are architects, restaurateurs, shop owners and entrepreneurs. They are proof that women can smash the glass ceiling, that we are not doomed to another decade of all-male boardrooms.

But if The Apprentice is anything to go by, women can only do so by letting the shards fall on other women. The message being sent on primetime television to impressionable young men and women by Lord Sugar's female wannabes is that there is only room for one woman at the top, that teamwork and kindness get women nowhere and that a competition can only be won by crushing your opponents.

I don't believe women can only succeed in a man's world this way, but don't my word for it. Ask Karren Brady, who in series six exploded after a vicious catfight. "You are representing businesswomen today, of which I am one, and some of your behaviour is outrageous," she said, adding that 75 per cent of her management team was female "and I've never come across anything like this". Or Michelle Mone, Ultimo founder You're Fired regular, who said after a spat on Celebrity Apprentice: "You can be firm but fair – you don't need to be bitchy".

It's preferable that impressionable minds watch a programme about effort and achievement than one where success comes complete with fake tan and a boob job. But let's hope that in the next few weeks, Lord Sugar's hopefuls prove themselves as the professional women they claim to be.